The silver lining

There are countless phrases which offer hope and purpose for the struggles that surround our lives.  While idioms such as "every cloud has a silver lining" can be comforting at times, I think many people struggle to find the silver lining before the storm hits and washes it away.   So, because it is Sunday afternoon and another work week is knocking at my door, I wanted to uncover some of my silver lining:

Since starting my teaching career at the beginning of September, my days have been bracketed by a constant struggle to learn and teach Science.  I remember learning about the weather as part of Physical Science in 8th grade and hating every second of trying to learn the names of the different clouds.  When I was at a Science training on Tuesday, some guy flippantly referenced the different types of clouds like they were common knowledge.   My eyes burned with un-shed tears as I sat in my chair and realized that people who teach Science are the people who understood it the first time around.  Not only did I not understand Science when I was in elementary school,  more often then not I find myself disliking the subject more and more. 

The reality is that I hate Science because I don't understand it.  I don't care of its "just" elementary science, I have yet to uncover a topic that I didn't have to spend a ton of time researching in order to teach it.  Contrary to the common belief that I was going to realize how much Science I already knew, this has not yet happened. 

However, as I was explaining to one of my friends that I feel silly and helpless handling a subject that I was never trained it, I realized that because I'm not trained in it I have a natural filter with which to determine what the kids will or will not understand. You see, most subjects build on themselves as you progress through school but because I don't know what was taught in the past, I really can't assume my students have any kind of prior background knowledge at all.   Even though I am having a hard time learning Science day in and day out, I am confident that I am not teaching concepts that are above my students heads.  If I don't understand it, they won't either.    And that, my friends, is my silver lining.